NotThatHatGuy wrote:Of course, this being xkcd, he might simply have departed uphill to construct the launch ramp for whatever unlikely vehicle will imminently jump the castle and land on the ramp she is now constructing.

This is clearly an elaborate setup meant to mislead us into thinking they are on the beach. Any moment now, the shot will widen revealing a children's playground (possibly with a puddle) and a laid-back PSY singing "oppan gangnam style"...

I haven't really seen a complete list of images or an automatically updated .gif. Philip on page 2 maintains a list, but that is rather tedious...

I have the complete collection of images, and an automated gif. I would link and embed for you, but this is my first post

gif: dl.dropbox(dot)com/u/9818122/xkcd_time/xkcd_time.gifThis is a complete sequence with all images so far, automatically updated when new images become available

individual images: dl.dropbox(dot)com/u/9818122/xkcd_time/ordered/XXX.pngreplace XXX with a number, e.g. 000 or 057. The number ranges from 000 to current_count (see below). These are ordered in the sequence that has appeared over time.

current_count: dl.dropbox(dot)com/u/9818122/xkcd_time/current_countthe count does not include 000, so the total number of images is current_count+1

server filenames: dl.dropbox(dot)com/u/9818122/xkcd_time/png_list.txtfirst column = count; second column = time in EDT; third column is the server filename.

Folks with posts on the first few pages, feel free to include/embed the gif link (and/or others) to your post. I won't get much exposure here, I don't much care for that, but people deserve to see the movie (so far) in its entirety!

daef wrote:yay - the one time i don't see the comic the moment it appearsand i'm all like "nah - will see tomorrow...": THIS happens...

now i've got to click through the archive in here :/

damn me ^_^

Yep, most definitely what happened to me. I think that had I seen it yesterday morning I'd have been willing to debug through that strange JS code to see what it's doing.

The "strange JS code" has been explained several times already; it is simply a way of lessening the server load (by automatically updating the image, instead of making people refresh all the time). It is "strange" because it is minified, also to lessen the server load (no need to download easy-to-read code when the web browser understands it just as well with single letter variables and function names).

This thread reminds me of Gibson's Pattern Recognition where groups discuss the meaning of anonymously uploaded film clips, and try to track the origin of those clips. And mean that in a good way; I'm impressed by the collective intelligence shown in this forum.

Spoiler:

My guess is that the comic is a comment about how we often rush through things without savouring the moment and enjoying the anticipation. Look at how we all (yes, me too) are eagerly looking forward to the next "instalment" in this comic. Would we enjoy it as much if it was presented as an animated gif and played to the end in a few seconds?

We barely understand anything but that's what the first part of understanding everything looks like.

Sjö wrote:This thread reminds me of Gibson's Pattern Recognition where groups discuss the meaning of anonymously uploaded film clips, and try to track the origin of those clips. And mean that in a good way; I'm impressed by the collective intelligence shown in this forum.

Spoiler:

My guess is that the comic is a comment about how we often rush through things without savouring the moment and enjoying the anticipation. Look at how we all (yes, me too) are eagerly looking forward to the next "instalment" in this comic. Would we enjoy it as much if it was presented as an animated gif and played to the end in a few seconds?

Yeah, watching the animated gif of the images studying them for clues about what was going to happen definitely reminded me of Pattern Recognition.

Benjamin-B wrote:Converting your units from "pictures per day" to "minutes of animation per ten months" doesn't change the reality that it would be a lot of work. Even with stick figures on a background that changes only a little bit each time, drawing a picture at presentation quality would still take at least a few minutes, not including the time it takes to plan out future drawings. If we assume that he only takes 1.5 minutes to draw and upload each ensuing picture (a really low estimate), and that a new picture is needed every 30 minutes, then he'd be working on it 72 minutes a day on average, or 5 percent of his total time. If he did it in 8-hour marathons, it would take 45 of those marathons to get 10 months of pictures done. It's not impossible, but I don't think he would devote that much time to one installment of his comic for the rest of his life.

EDIT: I haven't read all the comments, but has anyone considered the possibility that this is all leading up to an April Fools' Day conclusion?

I know it's still a lot of work but I'm just saying it's not something unusual for animations. And drawing new pose for a stick figure he's been practicing for years would take maybe 10 seconds in my opinion. Yes, 7 years is probably too long but few months is quite possible.

Also - I would never believe it could run for months if I haven't seen #1110.

Of course, you may be right and it could end on April Fools' Day as many people has suggested. I even agree that this is very probable scenario (along with that 2-days-until-next-comic scenario).

Time. The final frontier. These are the voyages of Cueball and Megan. Its continuing mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before.

Is anyone else concerned at the fact that half-hours go by so quickly? I mean, I can measure my life in half-hours and they seem so ephimeral; reminds me of the Fight Club quote, "this is your life and it's ending one minute at a time". Also, this comic is making us wait to see developments, which is awfully close to real life interactions with stuff (which is kinda cool and very very meta). Furthermore, I am quite amazed at how everyone is trying to figure out some meaning behind it all when maybe, and quite possibly, it's just a pretty comic (much like real life, again), (though by being art it carries meaning just for existing).

Am I making any sense? Whatever, I'm really enjoying this experience.

(And to the people making unhappy predictions, if/when the comic ends and if/when it does it terribly, you can rightly say "I told you so" all you want; but for now, shut up! you're depressing everyone).

TemporaryLife wrote:Just a side note: Is this the largest comic thread this forum has seen? I went and looked to see how big Click And Drag was, but the comment number for that has already been outdone.

It's kinda interesting to read people watching this unfold. Maybe there is no real end game, and it's a tiny social experiment, in which Randall Munroe watches to see how people react to incredibly minor changes in things, when they believe there is a substantial outcome at the end of those changes?

I would be okay with that.

Sort by "replies" on forum page. Time comes eigth with 678 replies (at this moment). "Pickup Artist"'s got 2030. So good luck

EDIT: "Pickup Artist" had a flame war going on as far as I know (I didn't read through all 2030 posts . Locked now.

The "Pressures" thread was legendary.

Mighty Jalapeno wrote:

Tyndmyr wrote:

Роберт wrote:Sure, but at least they hit the intended target that time.

Well, if you shoot enough people, you're bound to get the right one eventually.

Re: Names - Since we have not seen a Megan-like character called anything other than Megan, we can assume that is this character's name until a contraindication appears. However, I don't believe this holds for 'plain' (bald?) characters, as we have seen multiple people that look the same because of their lack of ornamentation, from author surrogates (See 'Substitute Teacher') to characters that are clearly not Mr. Munroe. Even if the 'plain' appearance was unique to a single character, would that character really want the nickname 'Cueball'?

Everyone seems to have a lot to say about the DHM (Deeper Hidden Meaning) behind this comic. I've been reading xkcd for quite some time now, and in my memory, Randall has never really been big on symbolism and hidden meanings in things. He's always been really outright about everything, even when he makes dark and sad strips - "Lanes" immediately comes to mind, which is an incredibly bleak strip about how cancer may go into remission but you're still never completely out of the woods, but it's still very xkcd-like, and deals with probability rates.

I dunno, I just feel like looking at the sand castle as a metaphor might be... not so much his style? Or have I just been missing things along the way?

Hey, I just signed up (but following xkcd for quite some time now) and have been lurking this thread since yesterday. Just wanted to add for now that there is a similar setting in the comic #1110 (Click and Drag): imgs dot xkcd dot com slash clickdrag slash 1n4w dot png (very strict spamfilter in here!). I think these are kids instead of adults, but the sandcastle it pretty similar (2 towers).

I'm sorry if this has already been mentioned, but I have read about 90% of all the posts in this thread and can't remember anyone mentioning this.

Claveluza wrote:(And to the people making unhappy predictions, if/when the comic ends and if/when it does it terribly, you can rightly say "I told you so" all you want; but for now, shut up! you're depressing everyone).

No doubt this comic is setting some new records for repeated or continual viewing ... but I'm wondering - is this discussion thread also breaking new ground? I don't recall any comic that inspired so much continual discussion - and for obvious reasons, as the comic continues to evolve.